Among many table games carried out in casinos and game facilities, baccarat and blackjack are known. In these games, a standard deck composed of 52 playing cards is used and normally distributed from a chute including a plurality of shuffled decks (six to nine or 10 decks) before a game is started. Also in casinos and game facilities, a large number of gaming chips to be used in these games are used.
Gaming chips are put into a chip tray on a game table and after each game ends, the casino side collects and stores won chips (loser's chips) in the chip tray and also pays out the gaming chips to the winner from the chip tray as a settlement of bets.
When gaming chips of the chip tray run short, lacking chips are directly transported from a cage (cashier) of the casino to the chip tray, which is filled therewith. When gaming chips are transported from the cage to the chip tray, gaming chips are housed in a dedicated case (for example, a case capable of housing 100 chips) for transportation. Conversely, when gaming chips in the chip tray become excessive, excessive chips are directly transported to the cage of the casino after being housed in the dedicated case.
To measure gaming chips inside a casino, a conventional technology that measures the quantity and the amount of money of gaming chips for monitoring by embedding RFID in a gaming chip and reading RFID is known. A technology that manages gaming chips on the game table, gaming chips stored in the chip tray, and gaming chips of the cage by using an RFID attached chip is publicly known and disclosed in Patent Document 1 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,735,742).
It is difficult to prevent fraud and losses only by managing gaming chips in a portion of casinos such as the table, the chip tray, or the cage. Particularly when gaming chips are moved between the chip tray and the cage, it is difficult to prevent theft and losses of gaming chips and so continuous monitoring of gaming chips inside casinos is demanded.
A system according to an aspect of the present invention is a system that manages a package of shuffled playing cards and gaming chips, wherein the system includes the shuffled playing cards having playing cards constituting a predetermined number of decks shuffled in random order and integrally constituted individually as one container or package with a unique playing card ID code provided to the container or package, a chip case housing gaming chips having a chip ID code and to which a case ID code is provided, a game table on which a game is played using the shuffled playing cards and the gaming chips, a storage box provided in association with the game table to store a plurality of the shuffled playing cards carried from a card room and inserted into a card shooter apparatus on the game table and also to store a plurality of the chip cases housing the gaming chips used on the game table and including an opening/closing mechanism enabling taking out of the shuffled playing cards and the chip cases, and a control apparatus to manage the shuffled playing cards and the gaming chips, the storage box includes one or a plurality of card readers that reads playing card ID codes of all stored shuffled playing cards and also one or a plurality of chip readers that reads case ID codes of all stored chip cases, and the control apparatus has a function to output total numbers of the shuffled playing cards and the chip cases and also all the playing card ID codes and the case ID codes stored in the storage box by monitoring the playing card ID codes read by the card reader and the case ID codes read by the chip reader.
In the above system, the storage box may include a lock unit configured to prevent the shuffled playing cards and the chip cases of the gaming chips from being taken out from the storage box.
In the above system, the storage box may have a shuffled playing card storage box that stores the shuffled playing cards and a chip storage box that houses the gaming chips by allowing the gaming chips to be taken in or out independently.
In the above system, the case ID code of the chip case may be associated with the chip ID code of the gaming chip in the case and the control apparatus may have a function to output a total amount of value of all the gaming chips housed in the storage box by acquiring all the case ID codes housed in the storage box.
In the above system, the control apparatus has a function to grasp an increase/decrease of the chip cases housed in the storage box by periodically monitoring the case ID code of the chip case and, when the increase/decrease is grasped, to output the total amount after the increase/decrease of the value of all the gaming chips housed in the storage box.
Another aspect of the present invention is a system that manages shuffled playing cards and gaming chips, including shuffled playing cards having playing cards constituting a predetermined number of decks shuffled in random order and integrally constituted individually as one container or package with a unique playing card ID code provided to the container or package, a chip case housing gaming chips having a chip ID code, a game table on which a game is played using the shuffled playing cards and the gaming chips, a shuffled playing card storage box provided in association with the game table to store a plurality of the shuffled playing cards carried from a card room and inserted into a card shooter apparatus on the game table, a chip storage box that stores a plurality of the chip cases housing the gaming chips used on the game table, and a control apparatus to manage the shuffled playing cards and the gaming chips, wherein the control apparatus has a function to output total numbers of the shuffled playing cards stored in the shuffled playing card storage box and the gaming chips stored in the chip storage box and also all playing card IDs stored in the shuffled playing card storage box and all case IDs stored in the chip storage box by monitoring the playing card IDs read by a card reader that reads the playing card ID codes of all the shuffled playing cards stored in the shuffled playing card storage box and the chip ID codes of all the gaming chips read by a chip reader that reads the chip ID codes of all the gaming chips stored in the chip storage box.
In the above system, the control apparatus may have a function to output a total amount of value of all the gaming chips housed in the chip storage box by reading all the chip ID codes present in the chip storage box.
In the above system, the case ID code of the chip case may be associated with the chip ID code of the gaming chip in the case and the control apparatus may have a function to output a total amount of value of all the gaming chips housed in the chip storage box by acquiring all the case ID codes housed in the chip storage box.
In the above system, the control apparatus has a function to grasp an increase/decrease of the gaming chips housed in the chip storage box by periodically monitoring the chip ID code of the gaming chip stored in the chip storage box and, when the increase/decrease is grasped, to output the total amount after the increase/decrease of the value of all the gaming chips housed in the chip storage box.
In the above system, the shuffled playing card storage box may include a lock unit configured to prevent taking out of the shuffled playing cards from the shuffled playing card storage box.
Still another aspect of the present invention is a storage box that manages shuffled playing cards and gaming chips, wherein the storage box is carried from a card room to store a plurality of shuffled playing cards and also makes available the shuffled playing cards by individually taking out and inserting the shuffled playing cards into a card shooter apparatus on a game table and further stores a plurality of chip cases housing gaming chips used on the game table to adjust a quantity of the gaming chips on the game table using the chip cases when the gaming chips on the game table are excessive or lacking in accordance with development of a game on the game table and also to be able to store the gaming chips that are excessive before being transferred to a cage that manages the gaming chips of a casino and includes an opening/closing mechanism arranged near the game table to enable taking out of the shuffled playing cards and gaming chips when necessary, the shuffled playing cards have playing cards constituting a predetermined number of decks shuffled in random order and are integrally constituted individually as one container or package with a unique playing card ID code provided to the container or package, the gaming chip has a chip ID code and is housed in the chip case to which a case ID code is provided, the storage box includes one or a plurality of card readers that reads the playing card ID code of all the shuffled playing card stored and also one or a plurality of chip readers that reads the case ID code of all the chip cases stored or the chip ID code of the gaming chips in the chip cases, and a control apparatus has a function to output total numbers of the shuffled playing cards and the chip cases stored in the storage box and also all the playing card ID codes and the case ID codes or chip ID codes stored in the storage box by monitoring the playing card ID codes read by the card reader and the case ID codes or chip ID codes read by the chip reader.
The storage box may include a lock unit configured to prevent taking out of the shuffled playing cards or the gaming chips from the storage box.
The storage box may include a shuffled playing card storage box that stores the shuffled playing cards and a chip storage box that houses the gaming chips by allowing the gaming chips to be taken in or out independently.
In the above storage box, the control apparatus may have a function to output a total amount of value of all the gaming chips housed in the storage box by reading all the chip ID codes present in the storage box.
In the above storage box, the case ID code of the chip case may be associated with the chip ID code of the gaming chip in the case and the control apparatus may have a function to output a total amount of value of all the gaming chips housed in the storage box based on the case ID code by acquiring all the case ID codes housed in the storage box.
Still another aspect of the present invention is a system including a chip case that houses gaming chips having a chip ID code, a storage box that stores a plurality of the chip cases housing the gaming chips used on a game table, adjusts a quantity of the gaming chips on a chip float of the game table using the chip cases when the gaming chips placed on the chip float of the game table are excessive or lacking in accordance with development of a game on the game table and also is able to store the gaming chips that are excessive before being transferred to a cage that manages the gaming chips of a casino and includes an opening/closing mechanism to enable taking out of the gaming chips when necessary, the game table on which a game is played using the gaming chips, and a control apparatus to manage the gaming chips, wherein the storage box includes one or a plurality of chip readers that reads chip ID codes of all stored gaming chips, and the control apparatus has a function to output a total number of the gaming chips stored in the storage box and all the chip ID codes stored in the storage box by monitoring the chip ID code read by the chip reader.
In the above system, the control apparatus may have a function to output a total amount of value of all the gaming chips housed in the storage box by reading all the chip ID codes present in the storage box.
In the above system, the storage box may include a lock unit configured to prevent taking out of the chip cases of gaming chips from the storage box.
In the above system, the control apparatus has a function to grasp an increase/decrease of the gaming chips housed in the storage box by periodically monitoring the chip ID code of the gaming chip stored in the storage box and, when the increase/decrease is grasped, to output the total amount after the increase/decrease of the value of all the gaming chips housed in the storage box.
In the above system, the control apparatus may have a function to output whether an increase/decrease amount or increase/decrease value of the gaming chips placed on the chip float of the game table or an increase/decrease amount or increase/decrease value of the gaming chips placed in the cage that manages the gaming chips of a casino and an increase/decrease amount or increase/decrease value of the gaming chips housed in the storage box match.
In the above system, a case ID code may be provided to the chip case and associated with the chip ID code of the gaming chip in the case.
Still another aspect of the present invention is a gaming chip used by a system that manages the gaming chips including a unique chip ID code, wherein the gaming chip is housed in a chip case, the chip case is housed in a storage box including an opening/closing mechanism together with shuffled playing cards, and the chip ID code is configured to be read by a chip reader installed in the storage box and managed by a control apparatus that outputs a total number of the gaming chips stored in the storage box and all chip ID codes stored in the storage box.
Still another aspect of the present invention is a gaming chip managed by the above system.
Still another aspect of the present invention is a chip case housing gaming chips used by a system that manages the gaming chips, wherein the gaming chip has a unique chip ID code, a chip case housing the gaming chip has a shape in which columns housing the gaming chips by being stacked in an axial direction are formed in parallel and is housed in a storage box including an opening/closing mechanism together with shuffled playing cards, and the chip case is configured so that the chip ID codes of the gaming chips stacked in the axial direction by a chip reader installed in the storage box from outside the chip case in the axial direction of the gaming chips.
In the above chip case, the chip case housing the gaming chips may be constructed of an upper portion and a lower portion being joined, an upper surface of the upper portion may be formed as a flat surface, and an undersurface of the lower portion may have a shape in which columns housing the gaming chips by being stacked in the axial direction are formed in parallel.
In the above system, the playing card ID code and the case ID code may be identified by using a wireless tag.
In the above system, the playing card ID code may use a wireless tag of UHF and the case ID code may use a wireless tag of HF.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the exemplary embodiments will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the exemplary embodiments when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.